Another Burger Odyssey Coda: Twin Kegs

Adverbs: Who needs 'em?

Although Burger Up still remains the crowned champ of Nashville burgers, as far as this blog is concerned,  I'm still finding plenty of good ones around town, especially since real burgers became trendy once again. And so, here's another one we stumbled onto — or into — better later than never: Twin Kegs.

Look, it's a dive. Not a faux dive, but a dive-dive. It has wobbly tables indoors, and cheap plastic tables with holes in the top, on the patio. It has a tabletop shuffleboard game! Some people are even afraid to go in, thanks to appearance + location (Thompson Lane, just west of Nolensville Road) — which works out just fine for the rest of us. Call it hipster rationale, but a place like this has got to have a good burger, right? 'cause it's not like the owners' investment money is going into restaurant design & marketing. So let's get on with it.

I'm going to start out by letting you know the one complaint I have about this burger: you can't get it medium rare. Probably can't. The first time I visited, someone up there took pity on me and it was made to order but on every visit since, the least they'd cook it for me was medium. Health department and all that. Therefore ...

Juiciness: 3 This is the one area the TK burger fails, for the above reason. I have had drier burgers — at someone's backyard barbeque.

Attractiveness: 7 This is a real working man's (and woman's) burger, and just a little on the homely side. The mix of white/yellow cheese is an original idea in Nashville; add-on points for that.

Cheeseburger, tots, and a Yazoo < $10

 It's hard to tell from the photos, but their "Bad Burger" contains a slice of crispy bacon buried under the cheese; it's not a very thick slice, and it's not a gourmet bacon from East Tennessee that needs identification on the menu, because the bacon isn't the star of the show.

Flavor: 9 This burger IS the star and it's a good'un. Hand-patted, and not over-worked. It doesn't have the texture of hamburger that was previously frozen, either. According to Twin Kegs menu, they do add some flavor enhancements, but from a taster's view, the enhancements (including the bacon) don't distract from a mediocre burger, they ...  enhance.

Atmosphere: 7 Told you already: it's a dive. If you look closely at the photo to the left, you can see a spot in the bar padding where the genuine naugahyde has a hole in it. But when you're paying $16 for two bacon cheeseburgers, a Coke & a Yazoo, is a trip back to 1982 really going to kill anyone?

Digestivity: 7 An hour later, I can still taste a little burger, but it's not unpleasant.


Overall: 6.5 but ... don't let that low number fool you. In spite of the kitchen's unwillingness to make a medium-rare burger, Twin Kegs is absolutely worth visiting, and coming back to.